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question Losing WHOIS Privacy

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domain400

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If WHOIS privacy is enabled on a domain, what happens when the domain is sold?

Does the buyer get access to the private information of the seller in any way? Is the WHOIS privacy service disabled after the sale/transfer?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
to look into it share the registrar
 
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If WHOIS privacy is enabled on a domain, what happens when the domain is sold?

Does the buyer get access to the private information of the seller in any way? Is the WHOIS privacy service disabled after the sale/transfer?
Hi

if/when a domain is sold on a marketplace, then whatever personal info the seller provides to that platform, could be known to the buyer, excluding tax information.
it would be the same with escrow services, because both the seller and buyer may have to verified.
so, there is passage info, for/with whom you're transacting with.

imo...
 
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Normally you should be disabling whois privacy when the domain sells, as it can't be transferred to another registrar until so. Pushes on the other hand (account to account within same registrar) might not need this, but I still disable whois privacy anyways before the push.

It's a good question because there are some registries whom automatically update the whois to reflect the current owner after the transfer, but there are also some that don't. And it is somewhat of an annoyance seeing your info displayed after the domain has sold and been transferred and the new owner hasn't bothered to update with their own. This could be problematic especially if waiting for a payout and the marketplace is looking to the whois ownership change as proof of the transfer.

So basically, yes, if upon transfer completion the whois isn't automatically filled and must be done manually by the new owner, then they can see your info. A total whois privacy isn't a given on the the transfer, normally it has to be activated by the new owner- however I think with the new GDPR rules there should be some sort of partial privacy enabled automatically.
 
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to look into it share the registrar
Selling on the namecheap marketplace.

Pushes on the other hand (account to account within same registrar) might not need this, but I still disable whois privacy anyways before the push.
Yes I am referring to this.
Why do you disable the whois privacy before selling it?

Thank you both for your answers.
 
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if/when a domain is sold on a marketplace, then whatever personal info the seller provides to that platform, could be known to the buyer, excluding tax information.
Thank you for the reply.
What platform do you think is the best for this?
 
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Yes I am referring to this.
Why do you disable the whois privacy before selling it?
I do it just to avoid potential complications, and from habit. A few years back buyers were not so interested in account pushes, they wanted the domain transferred out to their registrar of choice. So to do so you had to remove whois privacy.

I have never been too concerned about a buyer gaining access to my whois info to use for nefarious reasons, because then really then you would be assuming people are buying domains for generally useless information. I mean it's a possibility but it's like saying are you going to sell your used car to someone without them knowing your current ownership info?
 
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If whois privacy is enabled, the seller does not get access to that information after the sale. Whether Whois privacy is initiated by the buyer for him or herself is their own decision. They do not get access to your information retroactively simply because they are the new owner.
 
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